16-Year Old Isabel Stadden Breaks Jr. Pan Pacs Record in Day 3 Prelims

2018 JR. PAN PACIFIC SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

16-year old American swimmer Isabel Stadden swam a 2:08.81 to break the Jr. Pan Pacs Meet Record in the 200m backstroke on Saturday during the 3rd day of prelims in Fiji.

Besides taking the top seed by over 2 seconds, ahead of Katharine Berkoff‘s 2:11.01, Stadden dipped under the old Meet Record of 2:09.59 set by current American team captain Lucie Nordmann in 2016. Nordmann was the 3rd-fastest qualifier in prelims, but because she was also the 3rd-fastest American, that bumps her down to the B final. The same happened to Alex Walsh, who finished in 2:11.34: the 4th-best time in prelims. The American had the 4 fastest times in the heats.

Behind Stadden in Berkoff in the A final, then, is Canada’s Madison Broad, who clocked a 2:14.31, and her countrymate Rosie Zavaros, who finished in 2:15.86.

Hers was the only Meet Record in prelims, though American swimmer Gianluca Urlando put a scare into one in the 100 fly. He swam 52.56, which is the 2nd-fastest swim ever done by an American 15-16 in the event (behind only his 52.48 from US Nationals, the age group record). The Meet Record in that event is a 52.37, standing since 2009 when New Zealand’s Daniel Bell swam to Jr. Pan Pacs gold.

Other Day 3 Prelims Highlights:

  • American Carson Foster cooled off a little after a white-hot start to the meet that included breaking 15-16 National Age Group Records belonging to both Caeleb Dressel (200 free) and Michael Phelps (400 IM, twice). The 16-year old swam 1:59.35, which tied 17-year old teammate Peter Larson for the top spot in finals of the 200 back. For Larson, that is his first career swim under 2 minutes in the event and a lifetime best by almost a second. Foster, on the other hand, was 1.65 seconds.
  • Australian Lani Pallister qualified first in the girls’ 400 free, with Miyu Namba of Japan (4:12.99), Mariah Denigan of the USA (4:13.49), and Claire Tuggle also of the USA (4:13.55) less than a second back. Of that group at the top, the swim was only a personal best for Namba, with both Pallister and Tuggle having been 4:10s.
  • American Ross Dant swam a 3:54.87 to qualify 1st in the men’s 400 free, followed by countrymate Ethan Hasley in 3:55.14. Dant’s best time is a 3:51, but for Heasley that was more than a 2-second improvement. New Zealand’s Zac Reid qualified for the final 8th in 4:01.00. The triple New Zealand  Champion this summer is his country’s fastest-ever junior middle distance freestyler, and was the top seed in the event coming into t he meet in a 3:51-low. He’s raced fairly-well at the meet so far, so finals will demonstrate whether something has happened (illness?) or if he was just cruising to a soft landing in prelims.
  • Chiharu Iitsuka of Japan qualified 1st in the women’s 100 fly in 59.92 – the only swimmer sub-one minute in prelims. Isabel Ivey was 2nd in 1:00.00, and Canada’s Maggie MacNeil, who skipped the senior version of Pan Pacs to race at this meet, qualified 3rd in 1:00.12. 6 of the 8 swimmers in the final have been under 1 minute in their career, including MacNeil and Michaela Ryan of Australia, who have both been 58s; and nobody in the A-Final swam a best time.

In This Story

4
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

4 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
NEWTOSWIMSWAM
5 years ago

Good day for Minnesota swimmers: Isabelle Stadden and Peter Larson, top seeds in 2BK.

Caeleb Dressel Will Win 9 Gold Medals in Tokyo
5 years ago

Ummmm. I changed my mind about swimming a backstroke event this fall, cause there’s no way in hell I can face Peter Larson. I wanted to work on off strokes, but this guy scares me. I’d be lucky if I broke 2:00 scy. Massive respects to him. He’s making not only the Edina Club proud, but also Minnesota.

Yozhik
5 years ago

The 400 final is promising to be interesting. Preliminary results of first four finalists are within 1 sec.

Kiwi
5 years ago

You picked it. Zac Reid out with illness. Hopefully he can be healthy for the youth Olympics

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

Read More »